Light vs. Dark

ZONE CONFERENCE IS THE BEST THING TO EVER HAPPEN TO MISSIONARIES.

It was my first zone conference and President and Sister Scott's last. Their motto and counsel that has been the such a great reminder for me as a missionary is to "be a little bit better tomorrow than you were today." They are two of the most wonderful people I have ever known. I'm grateful for their service and continued love. I will miss them dearly!

Shoutout to Shannon McCormick (who is on a mission and probably won't see this)-- President and Sister Clayton love you and I'm so excited to meet them!

Anyway ZONE CONFERENCE! In preparation, we studied scriptures and fruits in the world today of light vs. dark. Every single decision we make in our lives either moves us closer to God or it moves us away from God.

Something I'm grateful to realize is that we HAVE to "process with the Savior in the light" rather than "processing with the adversary in the dark" (Sister Scott).

The Lord helps us grow by building us up and by loving us, whereas the adversary tears us down and makes us feel like we are incapable of growing and being better.
I'm so grateful to have been taught this, because when we understand this ^, we know exactly of how much worth we are to our Father in Heaven. He loves us and builds us up with loving correction.

The other beautiful things about ZONE CONFERENCE included discussions of studies of light vs. dark, life lessons and departing advice from President and Sister Scott, testimonies of departing missionaries, and the spirit that was there. I just love spiritual rejuvenation! (Also, shoutout to Sister Coleman because I saw her for the first time since our first transfer and I love her and can't wait until we can be companions again)

Miracles were seen this week and prayers were answered. My absolute favorite thing about being a missionary is being able to see God's hand in His children's lives. As missionaries, we get to talk to so many of our brothers and sisters and countless times, we see how we did not just cross paths with certain people by chance. Coincidences don't happen-- the heavens have not closed, God answers prayers (even those that go unsaid), and he loves each child. HOW DOES HE DO IT?

Remember, all God expects of us is to be a little bit better tomorrow than we were today. He loves you! Choose the light! #CTL

This week is Gay Pride week down here in Toronto, so next week's email should be exciting! I love y'all!

What is love?!

First of all, the lead singer of Imagine Dragons was in our sacrament meeting yesterday so noooo big deal

but the best part of yesterday was that RODOLFO WAS BAPTIZED! He is so happy!
The craziest thing to me is how, when people are baptized, the light of Christ literally illuminates from them!
He looked like a new man! Because he is. That's what the gospel does-- it changes people.

When he bore his testimony, he said that when he first started meeting with us, he felt really happy.

Happy like when he was a child;
And he didn't know why.

That he had never been to and stayed with a church before

but that he is happy to enter into a covenant with God.

"Children of the covenant have the right to receive His doctrine and to know the plan of salvation. They claim it by making covenants of sacred significance."

That's why we are here!
We are here to make, keep, and honor covenants so that we can have everlasting unity with God and our loved ones in the life to come.

The only way we can be happy is if we are on the path that leads back to God.

The only way we can be on the path that leads back to God, is by making, keeping, and honoring covenants with him.

The church is true!

This past week, two remarkable things happened.

*NUMERO UNO*

So last week, I gave a mormon.org card to this guy on the bus, not realizing that he was half-drunk.

Nevertheless, he was loud and obnoxious, and it was really funny.

He ended up texting us the next day saying he was interested in learning more.

So we met with him and he said he didn't really remember what happened when we first met until he found the mormon.org card the next day.
We taught him about the restoration of the gospel.

Even though he ended up not being interested, two good fruits were born from this labor

1) I learned that prepared people are people who are willing to act by making and keeping commitments. The adversary is super good at convincing people to glory in their contentment. Laziness will NOT get us to the Celestial Kingdom. It won't. We have to be willing to get out of our comfort zones, to act, to change, to sacrifice, to improve, to MOVE ALONG the path of discipleship that leads us back to God. So #noyolo

and

2) I felt this deep concern for him...? I actually desired his salvation more than I ever have for anyone before. WHAT IS THIS FEELING? I realized, that THAT is what missionary work is about-- it is about loving people so much that you desire their eternal salvation just as much as your own. Charity never faileth. I love when I get those flashes of feelings of charity inside me because it is something I'm learning on really developing.

*NUMERO DOS* (can you tell that I just want to be transferred to spanish work? #hermana)

We met with Snow this week! What a cutie! She is oh so prepared.

In the beginning of the lesson, she talked about how she doesn't know if it's Buddha or Heavenly Father or what, but that she wants to know what is true.
We talked a lot about the spirit and how it is by the holy ghost that she will come to know truth.
At the end of the lesson she prayed so earnestly that holy ghost would tell her what was true.

After she prayed she paused and looked at us and said,

"...I think I just felt something. I feel like He was close to me, that He was listening to me."

our Heavenly Father knows His children! He knows us and He loves us perfectly. He wants us to come home to Him one day.
And that's why He will and does provide us with all the opportunities and experiences that help us succeed in returning to Him.

We just have to look for and take advantage of them.

The most important thing I learned this week is that

"The gift of the Holy Ghost comes after one repents and becomes worthy... The Holy Ghost bears witness of the truth and impresses upon the soul the reality of the Father and the Son Jesus Christ so deeply that no earthly power or authority can separate him from the knowledge." (James E. Faust)

Truth is not founded upon tangible things that we can see and touch, but rather of things of the spirit.

The things of this world will be done away, but the things of the spirit are eternal.

We know truth because of the spirit.

"And it came to pass that Ether did prophesy great and marvelous things unto the people, which they did not believe, because they saw them not." (Ether 12:5)

The people didn't believe in the prophecies of Ether because they "saw them not"-- but the prophecies were still true.

Sister Waldron always says:

"What is right is right, even if no one is doing it;

what is wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.”

Truth is truth. Period.

And knowing truth is not equivalent to an accumulation of facts and information, but it is humbly seeking and then acting in faith. The witness of the holy ghost is the most powerful and accurate means of knowing truth.

I love the gospel so much! I love that Heavenly Father loves us enough to provide us with all the necessities that enable us to return to Him. He is so real and so so good. Share God's love with everyone, because we all need somebody to lean on. (it's fine, it's applicable)

Love y'all!

Miracles Happen

I forgot this last week, but... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONTH TO EMILY OSCARSON!! My baby girl is no longer a baby anymore! But she is. Love you!

This week was full of miracles! It was so good! For this transfer, I'm focusing on each one of the Christ-like characteristics each week and working on implementing it into my missionary work and applying it to my life. This past week, I focused on faith and hope!

As I studied this week, I realized that when we sin or yield to temptation, we are doubting in God and trusting in our natural man-- aka we are lacking faith and hope that our obedience to God's commandments has the power to bring everlasting joy. Faith-- no wonder it's the first principle of the gospel!

Last week we were walking down the street and this lady was walking toward us. We stopped to give her a mormon.org card and I will admit, I wasn't expecting her to be too enthusiastic about missionaries stopping her, but we started talking and she said, "Ohhhh! I have been looking for a church to go to! Do you guys do baptisms in your church?" UHM. YES WE DO BAPTISMS IN OUR CHURCH. So prepared!!

*miracle*

Monday our appointment never showed, so we went contacting and ran into a guy named Saad-- he is the only practicing Muslim in his family, but we talked for a long time about how this life is our time to prepare to meet God and that we will be accountable for the things we do here. He was interested and so we met again and talked about God's plan for us and about how Christ's Atonement is central to that plan and necessary for our progression and eternal happiness. Good things are ahead! Let the Holy Spirit guide!

*miracle*

So I have been called to be building manager, basically I'm in charge of ESL. I was like WHAT PLEASE NO. All I could think about was how I have no idea what I'm doing and THEN I realized this is Heavenly Father giving me the perfect opportunity to have faith in Him rather than myself. For our first ESL instruction meeting, I went in all nervous and freaking out "not knowing beforehand the things that I must do", and then by the end I realized it was fine? Things went well! Success thanks to the spirit; and to a loving Heavenly Father who knows His children and their struggles.

*miracle*

After ESL, we taught Rodolfo. For the first time, I really felt like I taught a person, not a lesson. The spirit was so present! He hasn't been super consistent with reading and praying and so we knew that the only way he could start progressing and really be prepared for baptism, is if we read from the book of Mormon with him. So we read about baptism and about how the spirit works. As we did so, he asked questions and opened up and it gave us the opportunity to hear more about where he stands and how he feels about everything. We also had a member there who was baptized recently and so she was able to share her testimony with him and simply talk about how she felt and how she knew being baptized was good and right. He said he feels ready.

*miracle*

As we were driving one day, Sister Waldron felt impressed that we should go visit a less-active. No reason at all. So we did. She was home alone and let us in and we talked and shared a spiritual thought and left. God knows what He is doing!

*miracle*

The other day we were walking down the street. Normal. Then we stopped and went down another street. We found a girl and her friend. We started talking to her and at first she wasn't interested, but she was nice enough to keep a conversation going. As we testified to her about her worth and our purpose as children of God she was like, "Do you guys just go around and talk to people about this stuff all the time?" WHY YES WE DO! The spirit touched her heart. She then told us that her friend and her were just talking last week about how they were thinking about going back to church, but didn't know where. God knows His children!

*miracle*

We also got a text the other night from a man who we handed a card to-- he wants to learn more.

And a punk kid on the bus that made a scene when we handed him a card texted us yesterday as well-- he too wants to learn more. And a guy who is Sekh, after we taught him about the apostasy asked "so what about now?" (as in, where is the prophet now?)

AND MIRACLES JUST KEEP HAPPENING HERE IN TORONTO!!

Also, Sister Waldron had a birthday yesterday! She is feeling 22! Ow ow! She is such a gem. I love this sister so much! She has such a beautiful soul and is such an example to me! When one companion has a birthday, two companions have a birthday! Basically all the food we fasted from yesterday, was made up for at Sister Waldron's birthday dinner thanks to the wonderful Contrerras family. We love them so much. So yes, we were fed well yesterday.

Always look for the miracles in your life! They are there! Love y'all!

FUNNY--

"Elder Holland could say 'TUNA FISH IS THE BESSSST!' and people would be like 'YEAHHH!!'"

so true.

Go forth with faith!

Transfer calls aaaaaand.....

I'm staying in Toronto YSA! I love this city and the people here!

This morning, the assistants called and said they didn't get around to calling us last night and had transfer news for us.....MY HEART STOPPED. They told Sister Waldron that she would be getting a new companion named....Chevy Malibu. 

NOT FUNNY.

So now we get a car! But still not funny.
First of all, I just want to thank every single person that contributed to my charity project a year ago for my Living Prophets class at BYU. This past week, I have thought a lot about the importance of having charity and how essential it is in missionary work. I read through everyone's responses from my project and wrote down everything that describes charity and learned that there are so many ways to express charity and to BE charitable! I'm excited to work on loving people perfectly, the way Christ does.

"There is nothing that will persuade someone more than loving them." 

^^ Truth.

Also, there were a lot of people that gave us a lot of fruit one day, so that was really nice!

Last week, Sister Waldron and I went to Kensington Market where they have all these thrift stores and hole-in-the-wall food places. There were so many hippies and hipsters and I just can't get over how I always feel like I'm in a movie here in Toronto! Every single part of downtown is different and I feel like I'm in a different part of the world everywhere I go. Crazy city, but I love it!

We visited a girl named Marcela this week. She was one of our potential investigators and she and her family are from Slovakia. We went to share a spiritual thought with her and her family, but realized it would be a lot harder than we thought, because of the language barrier. Language barriers are my favorite because it forces us as missionaries to teach super simply and to just testify-- that is when I learn to just get out of the way and that is when the spirit is the strongest.

David is so good! When we taught him the Word of Wisdom last week, he said he had quit drinking three weeks before-- God was preparing him! He is so cool. He is preparing for baptism this next Sunday!

Rodolfo is so cool. He has such a sweet heart and is so determined to follow Jesus Christ. He, too is getting baptized this month!

We are also teaching an Albanian guy named Besnik. He is so funny. He always talks about chips and tv and other random things. He's a keeper. Set for baptism this month!

This week we taught a girl named Snow. She is AMAZING. We met her outside the subway station last week and she was super interested in meeting with us. We met her this week and taught her the restoration and she realized that baptism is so important for us to understand where we stand with God and how when we are baptized, we know who we follow and serve and are bound to. She accepted baptism for the end of this month! She is so cool.

We also taught Jonathan. He has so much potential! I'm grateful that God has a plan for each of us and that, no matter where we are in the stages of our lives, God is always there to lift us up-- if we let Him. 

One day we got on the subway and a man said hello to us and told us he was going to die. He then went off about how we believe in fantasies and made-up things that make us feel good. Then another day a man was asking us a bunch of questions and was getting super frustrated and didn't believe the things we testified of. Then another girl told us that the book of Mormon isn't history and that we shouldn't need to add to the Bible because the Bible is enough. All these things just make me think of how grateful I am and how lucky I am to have a knowledge of this Gospel. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God called to restore Christ's church to the earth, and that this church is the Lord's kingdom on the earth. Truth is restored, people! And we have full access to God's love and direction. How blessed are we to live in this dispensation!

TerriAnne. She is an angel. She has been through so much in her life but knows so perfectly how important it is that we stay near to God. God loves His children so deeply. TerriAnne's example of humility and desire to know God is so admirable.

This weekend we had Stake Conference and Elder Holland and President Eyring spoke to us over a broadcast. It was so good! I learned wonderful things.

Let us all go forth with faith to tell the world of Jesus Christ the Lord! Bear witness He is God's own Son; proclaim His wondrous word! Go forth with hope and courage strong to spread the word abroad that people of all nations are children of our God.

Share the Gospel with your friends, share the joy!

Love y'all!

how great reason have we to rejoice!

I have said it once and I'll say it again...I live in the great and spacious! It's all about living IN the world, not OF the world. It's a balancing act, I tell ya.

A lot of our appointments cancelled this week, so we had loads of time to contact. We went to Ryerson University this week-- you would think YSA people would be more receptive to a message of hope and happiness and truth, especially if it means being able to stand out amongst the crowd! So, because everyone was suuuuuper nice to us that day, we called Oliver and told him that we need him to come contacting next time-- we know that if Oliver stands next to us while we share a message of the gospel with them, they would be too intimdated/scared to run away or not listen... so we got this next time! We also went to Queens Park and did "Questions of the Soul" surveys-- it was SUCH a beautiful day and there were so many people out, so it was perfect! 

On Friday to Saturday we had exchanges! I went to Mississauga with Sister Stoddard and its so beautiful there! Partially because it reminded me of Utah--without the mountains. During our exchange, I learned so much! I'm so grateful to be able to learn from other sisters and be reminded of my strengths but also recognize where I can improve. The Lord always helps us by building us up, not tearing us down-- that's Satan. Everything we do and say and are all begins with a thought. We must always keep our minds a holy place so we can distinguish between good and evil in everything. 

To prepare for exchanges, we studied Alma 26 along with the topic of how I find joy in missionary service. Alma 26 and 27 are so amazing! Read them and reread them! I realized that verse 1 describes perfectly how I find joy in missionary service:

"And now, these are the words of Ammon to his brethren, which say thus: My brothers and my brethren, behold I say unto you, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we started from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?"

How great reason have we to rejoice. No matter what we go through in life or what we don't understand or what we lack, etc-- the fact that the fulness of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth to never be taken away again is reason enough to rejoice. The gospel is true and we get to be apart of it! How great reason have we to rejoice! The church is true and God loves us. Blessings are so abundant in these latter-days! Let us choose to partake of them.

Without Christ, nothing would be possible. For Gospel Principles yesterday, Sister Waldron and I got to teach about the Atonement. I found myself so jumbled with my thoughts and words, but my simple testimony that I was able to bear reminded me that our Savior and His infinite sacrifice is perfect and that, because of Him, all things are possible.

http://easter.mormon.org/ 

(Kell, could you imbed this video instead of making it a link? If so, that would be great! If not, no worries :) thank you! the pics are not great sorry ha, I'll try to send more. its hard because we can't look like tourists, so we basically can't take pictures during the week, which is the only time we are downtown where all the cool buildings and cathedrals and things are)

Have a great week! Remember the Savior and always serve others because you love Him!

one long minute

I have realized that everyday as a missionary is like one long minute. It's weird. I get up in the morning, do our daily things, then one long minute later, I'm back in bed for the night. Time flies!

"Sis W and I have Sunday night cereal (basically every night, its fine)"

Last Sunday, we were blitzing ESL flyers and we ran into this 18 year-old named Solomon. He was really reserved, but agreed to meet up with us sometime. He didn't give us a phone number, but said he is Christian and studies the bible a lot. A few days ago, just a day before we were scheduled to meet up with Solomon but not knowing if he would really show up or how we could even get a hold of him to find out, we get on the bus to go downtown, and who do we see? Solomon. I really have come to see that God is so involved in the details of our lives. He is aware of every one of us, individually. It is kind of awesome to think about how God plans so "randomly" but so perfectly for us to cross paths with people each and everyday. Can you imagine Heavenly Father's weekly planning at night?!

 

So, our zone leaders live in the same apartment building as we do, just a few floor below us. One night we were running home (#exactobedience) and as we were running past the building, when we hear "DISOBEDIENCE" and they pour water over the balcony onto us! So...we put tape in their doorway (face wax?) and then they put peanut butter on our door handle and so now a war has begun. Missions are fun!

"A view from our apt (PENTHOUSE whoop whoop)"

One day this week, we had no appointments, so we got to contact and blitz all day! It was so great. We rode the subway and went downtown and met so many prepared people along the way. We ended up walking through this beautiful park and talked to a guy named Jonathan. He is so great and ready to change his life around. It started to rain so we got his number and began heading home. As we were walking we stopped and decided to go back and teach him (thank goodness for gazebos). We went back and he said he was leaving soon, but we met another guy named Michael and we taught him the whole Restoration. He isn't YSA, but hopefully a seed was planted and one day he will get baptized. I realized how blessed I am to talk to people every single day and listen to each one of them open up about who they are and what they believe. I learn so much from people and I am beginning to really see things from their perspective, rather than just my own.

"What a member feeds us basically every week. SO GOOD. I love colombians and their food!"

We have a current investigator from Ecuador named David and he is so cool. He almost got baptized twice, but was passed off to us because YSA is obviously the place to be. Recently we taught him the plan of salvation. It was great because he said that the hermanas taught it to him before in Spanish and he didn't understand it, but when we taught it to him in English, he understood a lot better. Thank goodness the Spirit speaks all languages.

On Sunday, we taught our sweet Korean Tom. It was unforgettable. President and Sister Scott joined in on our lesson and we read from the book of Mormon with Tom. We wanted to go over baptism again because, with the language barrier, we knew he didn't quite understand. As we read with him 2 Nephi 31, we got to verse 10 and Tom read in the best English he could. After he read it, we asked him what he understood from that verse. He paused, looked up and said, "Follow Me". Of all things, Tom understood one of the most important things our Savior has ever taught-- to follow Him. The spirit was present and helped Tom to understand baptism much better. He has accepted it and will be baptized on June 15th!

During personal study one day this week, I was reading Alma 19. This is the chapter about Ammon and King Lamoni and Abish. First of all-- the FAITH of these people! Ammon was such a faithful AND diligent servant of the Lord. Faith without diligent works is dead. Abish had been converted to the Lord for years and when the perfect opportunity to share the gospel came, she "ran forth from house to house, making it known unto the people." She recognized the power of God in her life and wanted to share it! King Lamoni and the queen had a change of heart and shared it with all the people in their kingdom. But my favorite part is the very end of the chapter when the Lord pours out his spirit upon them; the Lord is able to bless them by pouring out his spirit among the people because THEY BELIEVED HE COULD. They had been truly converted and had no more desire to do evil. It all was because of their faith.

The church is true.

Have a fantastic week!

Why do angels have wings?

I'm so happy that I got to skype yesterday and see and hear from my favorites! I love y'all more than life!

I hope everyone got to see the beautiful Mother's Day video on Mormon.org. If not, check it out and share it on all of your social networks (and hashtag it #itwasmom)! Even though mother's day was yesterday, we can celebrate mothers ever day! Like a kind Pakistani man on the bus told me, "every day is mother's day!" We should always be celebrating the lives of our families and friends every single day. We all have such precious people in our lives!

Speaking of precious people, we spoke to a bunch of them this week. We talk to a bunch of people every week, but this week my goal was especially to ALWAYS be talking to someone about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm learning to balance "not caring what people think" and "caring about people" so that I can boldly testify to strangers about the message of the restored gospel.

This week, we met with Leighton. He is so cool. He told us a lot about how he is trying to get in tune with his spiritual side and how in order to do that, he has been reading a few books. Since meeting with us, he has decided that he wanted to stop reading all of those books and just read the book of Mormon. He believes that the book of Mormon really can give him a greater understanding about life and help him find answers to his questions. So yeah, #truth. He also read to us a poem he wrote about how he feels about his current state in life. It was AMAZING. He mentioned how science and religion are not at odds, but rather science is just too young. He is so right! We invited him to be baptized and he says "...I am so down for that!" We are too, Leighton. We are too.

The best thing happened this week. Well not the best, but I enjoyed it.

We were teaching two Muslim guys. They are very devout to their religion, but they are very open to learning more as well. Toward the end of our second visit, we committed them to read the book of Mormon. Then, one of them got up and left and came back 10 minutes later.... he bought my companion and I each our own copy of the Quran! How sweet and tender of him. We told him we couldn't read it while on our missions. But then I told him how the book of Mormon helps us get closer to God more than any other book. 

The book of Mormon is the word of God and we are so blessed to be living at a time when the restored truth is on the earth to never be taken away! Blessed be the name of the Most High God!

While contacting yesterday, we ran into a couple and we talked for a good half hour. They are related to some members back in London and they are seriously some pretty cool humans. Before we went our way, the man said" Why do angels have wings?........because they take themselves lightly!" Something I am learning to develop it the Christ-like attribute of patience. I am learning that, not only do I need to be more patient with others, but I need to be patient with myself! The Lord works on us a little bit at a time, we just need to let Him!

I love y'all! Have great week!